Arpège

Alain Passard took meat, fish, dairy and eggs off his menu in July 2025, keeping only the honey from his own hives, and no three-star restaurant in France had done that before.2 Eight months later the MICHELIN Guide gave him three stars again, and a Green Star with them.1

Why go

Passard grows what he cooks. The house counts three kitchen gardens, at Fille-sur-Sarthe, Le Bois-Giroult and the Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, and the MICHELIN inspector writes that he goes to them for the menu itself: "The chef who fetes fruit and flowers never feels more at home than when in one of his three kitchen gardens in the west of France, where his twin vocations of cook and gardener meet."1 The vegetables have been the centre since 2001, when he stopped serving red meat.3 The 2025 change took a year to prepare and it cost him the dish he was famous for, poulet au foin, chicken cooked in hay.2 Asked whether the stars were at risk, he said he had "never thought about that."3 This kitchen is also where half of modern Paris learned the vegetables: Bertrand Grebaut started here as an intern before Septime,4 and Tatiana Levha cooked for Passard before Le Servan.5

Order this / avoid

The mosaic of tomatoes, which the wire reports name first off the new menu.2
Flamed aubergine with melon confit, and mesclun praline with roasted almonds beside it.3
The beechwood-smoked potatoes with wine sauce, one of two plates the MICHELIN inspector picks out.1
The sushi fantaisie, which is the other, and is vegetables doing a fish's job.1
Avoid expecting the roast. The hay-cooked chicken is gone with everything else that had an animal in it.2

What locals & experts say

Passard to Reuters, on what he gave up: Everything I was able to do with the animal will remain a wonderful memory.2
And on what he thinks he is doing instead: Today, I'm moving more towards a cuisine of emotion, a cuisine that I could describe as artistic. It's closer to painting and sewing... Today, I'm a different chef.2
Passard to AFP, and it is the least guarded thing he said: There's light in this cuisine. There are taste sensations that I've never experienced anywhere else, and then, about himself: I still eat a little poultry and fish. But I'm more comfortable with plants. They allow me to learn.3
Gwendal Poullennec, who runs the MICHELIN guides internationally, when AFP asked whether the stars were safe: We will continue to follow the evolution of Arpège, remaining faithful to our criteria.3
The house's own Green Star statement: Since 2001, vegetables have reigned supreme at Arpège and the seasons set the tempo for our cuisine. Nature has written the finest cookbook. We elevate the 100% natural vegetables, fruit and herbs from our three gardens.1

Good to know

Prices when Reuters read the new menu in July 2025: 420 euros for the long tasting menu and 260 for lunch.2
The honey is the exception and it comes from the restaurant's own beehives.2
Eleven Madison Park went first, in 2021, and kept its three stars the following year. Arpège is the second three-star anywhere to make the move.3
I have not found a critic who has eaten the new menu and published it. Everything above about the plates comes from news reports of the change.
Hygiene: I have not read a French inspection record for this room, so I have nothing to report either way.

Verdict

must-visit — Go for lunch, which is the cheaper of two very expensive menus, and eat the tomato mosaic. Alain Passard grows the vegetables himself in three gardens and cooks nothing with a face in it, and the guide handed him three stars again eight months after he stopped.